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Overview
of the Curriculum |
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| Session I: | Introduction
to HIV and AIDS |
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| Session II: | Building
Knowledge About HIV and AIDS |
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| Session III: | Understanding
Vulnerability to HIV Infection |
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| Session IV: | Attitudes
and Beliefs about HIV, AIDS, and Safer Sex |
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| Session V: | Condom
Use Skill Building |
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| Session VI: | Building Negotiation and Refusal Skills | |
The Inner-City
and Sense-of-Community Approach
A
unique feature of this curriculum is its strong inner-city and sense-of-community
approach. It emphasizes how HIV infection and AIDS have affected inner-city
communities and discusses the importance of protecting the community as
a motive to change individual risky behaviors. This theme is different
from traditional prevention curricula that focus on individuals' knowledge,
attitudes, and risk behaviors. Be Proud! Be Responsible! focuses
on participants' needs to adopt responsible and safer sexual behaviors
to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV, not only for the sake of themselves,
but for the sake of their families, sexual partners, children, and community.
The Role of Sexual
Responsibility and Accountability
Adolescents
need to learn how to be sexually responsible and accountable. Thus, participants
will learn that becoming sexually active is a choice every person makes
at some point in his or her life. That choice should be based upon how
individuals feel about themselves, their partners, and the consequences
of active sexual relations, such as STDs, including HIV infection, or
pregnancy. Participants will investigate what constitutes sexual responsibility,
such as abstinence or condom use during sexual intercourse, and will learn
to make responsible decisions regarding their sexual behavior.
The Role of Pride
in Making Safer Sexual Choices
Adolescence
is a time of confusion, mixed emotions, and uncertainty. During this time,
adolescents struggle with issues around self-esteem, self-respect, and
self-pride; therefore, they need to feel good about themselves, their
decisions, and their behaviors. Be Proud! Be Responsible! addresses
these feelings by emphasizing that it can feel good to make proud and
responsible safer sexual choices. As adolescents complete the curriculum,
their sense of pride, self-confidence, self-satisfaction, and self-respect
is encouraged and reinforced during the role plays and other skill-building
activities.
Also emphasized in the Social Cognitive Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior is the importance of skills and self-efficacy to perform a behavior. Perceived self-efficacy, defined as confidence in one's ability to perform a given behavior required to produce desired outcomes, has been shown to affect: 1) whether people consider changing their behavior; 2) the degree of effort they invest in changing; and 3) the long-term maintenance of behavioral change (Bandura 1982,1986,1989; O'Leary 1985). In addition, recent studies suggest that perceived self-efficacy is also important to HIV risk behavior change (e.g., Jemmott & Jemmott 1992; Jemmott et al. 1992; O'Leary et al. 1991; Valdiserri et al. 1989; Brafford & Beck 1991).
Training
Basic educator trainings for
Be Proud! Be Responsible! are available on a fee-for-service basis
from ETR Associates. Fee-for service trainings are provided by request
from a state or local education or health agency for groups of approximately
20-50 people. Costs vary depending on the size of the group trained. Average
costs include approximately $5,600 for staff time to prepare for and conduct
the training plus travel cost (average $2,500 depending on location) and
curriculum and training materials costs at approximately $250.00 per person.
For more information, contact ETR Associates' Training Department at training@etr.org.
Intervention
In
the research study, the 5-hour curriculum was implemented with an all
male population in a single-day format on a Saturday. The curriculum stressed
behavior change for prevention of HIV-AIDS. The behavioral findings (see
below) indicate that it also reduced the incidence of risky behaviors
leading to pregnancy.
Behavioral
Findings
Three
months following the intervention, the students in Be Proud! Be Responsible!
reported less risky sexual behavior than did students in the control condition
and reported having sexual intercourse on fewer occasions and with fewer
women. Those who had sexual intercourse used condoms more consistently,
and a smaller percentage of them reported engaging in anal intercourse.
Other Significant
Findings
The
students who participated in Be Proud! Be Responsible! scored higher
on a test of AIDS and STD knowledge, expressed less favorable attitudes
toward risky sexual behavior, and reported weaker intentions to engage
in risky sexual behavior than did the students who had participated in
the control condition.
Research
Design
The
participants were 157 inner-city African-American male adolescents. Their
ages ranged from 12 to 19, with a mean of 14.6 years. The students were
stratified by age and assigned randomly within age to Be Proud! Be
Responsible! or to a control condition which received instruction
on career opportunities. The students received the curriculum in small
groups of 6 to 8 students led by a trained adult facilitator. Because
the students were stratified by age, each group had a range of ages and
the average age in each of the groups was about the same.
The participants completed questionnaires before, immediately after, and 3 months after the intervention. Of the original 157 students, 150 or 96% returned to complete the 3-month follow-up questionnaire. The measures included HIV risk-associated sexual behavior, intentions to engage in risky sexual behaviors, attitudes toward risky sexual behaviors, and AIDS and STD knowledge.
For more in-depth
information:
Jemmott
JB, Jemmott LS, and Fong GT (1992). Reductions in HIV risk-associated
sexual behaviors among black male adolescents: Effects of an AIDS Prevention
Intervention. American Journal of Public Health 82(3): 372-377.
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Copyright © 2007 ETR Associates. All rights reserved. Disclaimer |
